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The Mars House

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick

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The Mars House

By: Natasha Pulley
Narrated by: Daniel de Bourg
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'Pure Pulley' STUART TURTON
'Joyful and profound' CATRIONA WARD
'Simply unputdownable' THOMAS D. LEE

January Stirling was one of the principal dancers of London's Royal Ballet. Now he's a climate refugee bound for Tharsis, the notorious terraformed colony on Mars. It's a utopia for the naturalised population. For January, as a dangerous Earthstronger whose body is unadjusted to the weaker Martian gravity, it's a life sentence to hard labour and ferocious discrimination.

But he will live.

Aubrey Gale, energy trillionaire and hereditary senator, is running for election on a hardline platform to protect the native population from dangerous immigrants. The path to equality is simple, requiring all Earthstrongers who choose to come to Mars to undergo the disabling and sometimes fatal process of surgical naturalisation.

Which is no life at all.

When a disastrous media encounter plunges Aubrey and January's lives into chaos, the solution is a five-year made-for-reality-TV marriage that could secure January's future and ensure Aubrey's political success . . . but it soon becomes clear that thousands of lives hang in the balance, and nothing is as it seems.

Timely and utterly unputdownable, The Mars House is an exceptional genre-blending story about privilege, strength, life, and love across class divisions - perfect for fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang, The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

©2024 Natasha Pulley (P)2024 Orion Publishing Group Limited
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Solar System Mars Funny War
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Natasha Pulley is one of the best. I’ve loved all of her books to date and the Mars House is no exception. So much to love, I’ll need to listen again

Awe

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A wonderful mystery thriller set on a future Mars..Touches of magic interwoven into what is at its core,a love story.

touches of magic

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love Natasha Pulley, have enjoyed everything she's written immensely and this new novel did not disappoint! she renders complex humans so we'll. Great style, timely narrative and totally engrossing throughout. highly recommend!

Another excellent story!

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I enjoyed The Mars House, the exploration of the integration of immigrants set in a mars colony against a backdrop of physical inequality (and destruction, energy challenges etc) caught and held my attention throughout. The interesting relationships between the main characters kept it lighter than it would otherwise have been and kept me thinking about the book when I wasn’t listening.

Interesting story weaving politics, integration and love throughout

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I was given this book as a birthday present by a friend and given I'm not a reader of sci-fi, it's never really been my thing, I went in thinking this'll be an okay read. I was wrong, it's a fantastic book. A mixture of sci-fi, politics, mystery, intrigue and a slow burn queer romance, it was wonderful! The central characters are likeable (I actually love them both so much) because they are relatable and have flaws/ issues/insecurities. Their relationship was incredibly compelling and gripping, one of my favourite things about the book. And the politics is intertwoven with mystery and intrigue, which keeps you hooked, trying to work out what's happening.
I loved this book and would love a sequel! Don't get me wrong the ending is very satisfying and wraps up things nicely but there are enough threads and unanswered questions that if the author wanted to, she could write a sequel and I would be preordering that in a heartbeat! I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a clever book with a beautiful slow burn romance and who wants a new obsession for a little while.

A wonderful book

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